Non-stop to Amsterdam in 10 hours with two big meals on the plane. We did sleep a little on the flight and were ready to go when we got to Schiphol. We took the train to town and walked the 5 - 10 minutes from the Centraal Station to our hotel. The room was expensive and small but it was located right off Dam Square and the bathroom was really 5 star.
First thing we did was walk over to the Anne Frank house. Small line to get in. Yeah!
We were both moved by the serious history of the place and the horrible outcome for the Frank family.
We ate a ton of mussels in a neat little restaurant recommended by Rick Steves and walked back to the hotel, buying a nice bottle of Froggie wine on the way. The hotel was 4 Star but had no air conditioning. We did have a fan in the room and we opened the window wide and were relatively comfy with that arrangement.
Monday we had brekkie on the street.......just sitting outside a bar/restaurant as many do in Europe we had delicious coffee and bread and some fruit. We went on a bus ride which went all around the city along the Prinsengracht for an hour for only 1 Euro each. Here's our very nice driver who was a cowboy at heart. (you could tell that from the way he drove)
Then we went on a canal boat tour and we had some really nice sandwiches and fruit and a small bottle of Froggie.
We had a good ride!
Later we went to the Van Gogh Museum and, to say the least, enjoyed that. We had a great dinner at an Argentinian place and again ate outside. We both enjoyed salmon.
The next day we decided to get out of the city. We took a bus ride to Zaanse Schans where there are some working windmills.
Dinner in an Italian joint and it was just OK. Not memorable. Not even worth mentioning............
Next day we went to the airport early because the non-stop to Houston had filled up so we elected to go through Newark ( aaarrrgghh!) We got First again and paid the gouging/usurious departure tax of 70 euros each and had a nice flight to NY. We were there from 12 noon to 6 pm standing by for 4 flights before we got seated. Got home at 10 pm and picked up the Patch this morning. I went to work today to help pay for this -more expensive than I had planned on- trip.
Here's a bunch more pictures with explanatory notes if I can get some MINOR CO_OPERATION from Blogger.
In the queue at Anne Frank house
Breakfast on the street
Bikes everywhere As you can tell, not much co-op from the old Blogger....
This is a pic of the narrowest house in Amsterdam(still no help from Blogger. Drats but here it is to the left seen thru the boat windows
3 comments:
I really enjoyed your travel writing! Sounds like a great trip. I suspect there may have been more to the Italian restaurant as it got 3 sentences. Tee hee. Did you go to an Indonesian for a rice table? You saw much more than we did and looks like it was nicer weather, too. Everything is so narrow in Amst., especially the stairs!
Your pictures brought back nice memories for me..Sybil and I went to Amsterdam and stayed with Joan and Raymond who made us really welcome. I have pics of us in the boat and the smallest house..'twas a lovely time. You didn't spend long there did you? Syb and I also went to Delpth (spelling?) that was a pretty little place too ..xx
Great pictures. I really enjoyed seeing the windmills. I didn't do that when I was there last year, but I was impressed with the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house.
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